


Anvil Drop

by FB Wickersham (perpetfic)



Series: The Blue Stones [9]
Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Female Protagonist, Gen, Magic, Sexism, Supernatural - Freeform, dudebro horseshit, i really need to give lauren a last name
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-14
Updated: 2017-09-14
Packaged: 2018-12-29 22:15:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12094590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perpetfic/pseuds/FB%20Wickersham
Summary: Hazel helps Lauren out in a sticky date situation. The situation is named Leo, and he's an ass.





	Anvil Drop

**Author's Note:**

> Love, as always, to HugeAlienPie for beta work.

"I need a favor," Lauren said with no preamble as Hazel walked into their room one Friday night. They'd been roommates just over a month, getting along fine except for occasional stray socks in each other's turf.

"What's up?" Hazel asked a she closed the door behind her and dropped her backpack by her bed.

"I told you about Jeff."

"The Something-something-Phi House guy?"

"Yeah. Him. We ran into each other on the quad, and we were talking about grabbing a bite to eat tonight, and then one of his frat brothers came out of nowhere and made Jeff tell him what he was doing because he's a pledge. So, Jeff tells him we're planning dinner, and this guy says he has to come along and supervise since Jeff is a pledge."

"That is creepy."

"Yeah."

"And totally in line with what little I know of frat culture."

"Right?" Lauren made a face. "Said the sorority girl," she added.

"Hey, none of that," Hazel replied. "You and I have run into your sorority sisters plenty, and they've never been creepy like that. They always ask if they can come along; they don't assume they get to. I swear I'd write my final paper for gender studies about toxic masculinity in frat culture if it wasn't on the banned list."

Lauren laughed, relaxing for the first time since Hazel walked in. "It's _banned_?"

"Apparently, a _lot_ of freshmen write that paper. That and makeup as either a patriarchal crutch or destroyer and some really basic stuff about gender expectations are disallowed so the prof doesn't have to read the same four topics." Hazel grinned when Lauren laughed again. "What's the guy's name?"

"Leo."

"What time's dinner?"

"Seven."

"Does he know he has no chance of a second date?"

"No."

Hazel grinned, feeling wicked in the best way. "I'm in."

*

Lauren and Hazel arrived at the restaurant ten minutes early. Jeff and Leo weren't there yet, but the hostess led them to a table and took their drink orders. 

Jeff and Leo showed up five minutes later. Jeff greeted Lauren with a warm and clearly appreciated hug. He held his hand out to Hazel with an open smile. "You must be Hazel. Lauren's told me a few things about you. They're all nice."

Hazel shook his hand. "Same here. Nice to finally meet you."

Jeff turned and gestured to Leo, who was standing a step behind him. "This is Leo. He and I are in the same frat."

Leo held out his hand, and when Hazel held out hers, turned hers so he could kiss the back of it. "It's a pleasure to meet such a lovely lady," he said.

Hazel was deeply tempted to scream "I'm a lesbian," loud enough to be heard in the kitchen, but she caught Lauren's grimace from the corner of her eye and held back. "Nice to meet you, Leo," she said, pulling her hand free. She sat back down next to Lauren. Jeff made no fuss about the seating arrangement, quickly sitting across from Lauren himself. Leo sat across from Hazel and seemed to have a smirk stuck on his face.

"I'm really glad you could join us, Hazel," Jeff said. "I know it was sort of last minute."

"I'm just using this as excuse to make Lauren make all the late-night food runs at midterms," Hazel replied.

Jeff and Lauren grinned. Leo's smirk went up a quarter inch, but not in a good way. The server came over, took the men's drink orders, and left again. 

"So, Lauren," Leo said a great sense of not-actually-won bravado, "what are your intentions towards my pledge, here?"

Lauren stared at Leo a moment, like she was waiting for him to laugh. His face stayed serious. "Just a date," she said. "For now."

"A date? That's all? You already hugged him when we walked in. You must be--"

"--really excited homecoming is coming up," Jeff interrupted, looking mortified. "Has your house started their decorations, yet?"

"Next week," Lauren replied. "I'm already signed up for two hours of pomping."

"Good luck beating us," Leo said in a tone that was all interruption. "Kappa Delta Phi's won that shit four years in a row."

"Oh," Hazel said, drawing it out so Leo would look at her. " _That's_ the name of your frat." 

Leo narrowed his eyes and pursed his mouth, exactly the reaction Hazel was expecting. "You didn't know? Really? We're the best frat on campus."

"Well, I didn't ask questions," Hazel said before Jeff or Lauren could intervene. "Lauren asked if I could hang out so you wouldn't be alone, and I figured why not. I like to meet people." Hazel kept her face guileless--you didn't learn subterfuge techniques from Auntie Tessa and fail at something so basic as guileless--and Leo's slow, steady breaths were her reward. She'd insulted him. But he had no way to counter it. Nothing she said had--technically--been rude.

"You go out with strange men a lot?" Leo asked.

Hazel didn't laugh at the weak jab, though she wanted to. She could see Lauren in her peripheral, biting back a smile. "I'm busy a lot. I'm a double major. This seemed like a fun time. So, here I am."

"Hazel's studying gender and sexuality theory and chemistry," Lauren said, and Hazel wished she could high-five her for how she delivered it. To someone like Leo, it sounded like polite information, but Hazel heard the underlying _you gross asshole_ in her tone. Hazel was pleased to find out Lauren already knew her well enough to set her up so beautifully.

"Gender _and_ chemistry? You trying for a feminist award?"

"I like to study why things blow up, and I like to study why people blow each other," Hazel replied. Jeff spit a mouthful of water into his own lap. Lauren outright cackled. Leo's face took on a deeply distrustful shape. 

"I bet you have a whole screed about how sexist the sciences are for women."

"As opposed to what?" Hazel asked, guileless again. 

"Women don't try as hard." Leo shrugged like everyone would agree. Lauren snorted. Jeff looked horrified, but Hazel beat him to a reply.

"Oh, you're one of those," she said.

"What?" Leo asked.

"Boring," Hazel replied. She looked at Lauren who was giving her the 'god why men' look. "You didn't mention he was boring."

"I didn't know," Lauren said, straight-faced. Hazel made a mental note to introduce her to Auntie Tessa as quickly as possible. They'd be hilarious to watch together.

"I'm not boring," Leo said, loud enough to catch the attention from the next table.

"Sure," Hazel said. 

"Leo, I think you--"

"Shut up, pledge," Leo snapped at Jeff. He glared at Hazel and leaned into the table like he was trying to get close to her. "I don't appreciate being called boring," he said to Hazel.

Hazel watched him for a moment. He stared back, clearly thinking they were in a contest. She wondered if an old theory of Nicole's was true. They'd discussed it a lot during training, the expectations of certain types of assholes and the Stones. She reached for her necklace and pulled it out from under her shirt, letting the blue rest front and center. 

Leo stared, then grunted, then leaned back like he'd won. "Oh, you're one of them."

"One of what?"

Leo tapped his own chest. "A Purple Stone or whatever they call themselves."

"Dude," Jeff said, "It's clearly blue."

"Shut up, pledge."

"Go fuck yourself, Leo."

Leo stared at Jeff, then whipped his head back to look at Hazel. "Did you win now? Getting my own pledge to talk back to me?"

"What do you think Blue Stones do?" Hazel asked. "I assure you we rarely give a shit about what you drunken toads are up to."

"You're not a drunken toad," Lauren whispered to Jeff.

"You haven't seen me drunk," Jeff whispered back. 

"Fucking Blue Stones." Leo waved his hand in a clear sign of dismissal. "You think you do something important."

"Listen here, fuckboy--" 

"Got this," Hazel said to Lauren, and Lauren went silent with a sharp nod. Hazel leaned across the table, much like Leo had leaned towards her a moment ago. "You think we're a bunch of silly little things playing with magical elements to feel good about ourselves. A commune with magic--just feel good bullshit all intertwined with," Hazel made the most sarcastic air quotes she could muster, "feminism."

"Duh," Leo said. "It's pretty fucking obvious. The only reason women make women-only spaces is because they want an excuse to play victim to men."

"Wow," Lauren whispered. Jeff looked too shocked to speak.

Hazel leaned in a little closer, pulled her power up a bit so it made her eyes flash. Leo looked terrified for a moment. "Listen here, you fuck, the reason the Blue Stones are heavily female is because when magic really started showing itself to people, it was in home situations. Anxiety beetles. Dust moths. Dust bunnies. Fire ants. Water goblins. Book gremlins. When wives and mothers and sisters and children went running to the default-by-sexism head of household, they were told the house was the woman's sphere. That it was a woman's responsibility to clear out the things that were causing trouble. So we fucking did. When it grew to weather gophers and rat-dragons and train snakes, we took care of that, too because men had been too goddamn proud of wearing trousers to learn how to take care of any of it.

"The Blue Stones extend invitations to boys as often as they flare up as hopefuls. They decline 87% of the time because they don't want to be seen as girly. Six percent of the time, they say it sounds boring. The other 7% of the time, they are welcomed into training with the rest of us and taught the exact same curriculum with the exact same expectations. They are a minority because of sexism and toxic masculinity and because of shitheels like you who dip yourselves in both and claim it's okay because you're in a frat."

Leo stared at Hazel, face hard. His smirk came back, though with less emphasis than before. "Nice little rant," he said. "You practice that in front of a mirror?"

"Leo," Jeff said, voice thin but determined. "Fuck off, dude."

"You don't speak that way--"

"I quit," Jeff said. "Fuck you. Fuck the frat. I was told by recruitement you guys were into working towards social change, and you're sitting here talking this shit. Eat shit."

Leo looked lost at that. Hazel figured he'd spent a lot of time lording his tiny amount of power over pledges. "You don't know what you're saying," he said to Jeff. "I can get you blacklisted from every frat on campus."

"My friend Mason is in a frat," Hazel said. "They definitely do social change work. I can get the name for you."

Jeff didn't look away from glaring at Leo. "Do that. I expected to walk into a real community. Not this shit." 

"Blacklisted," Leo boomed, then he stood up and walked out, his shoulder not insignificantly hitting Hazel's on the way.

"Don't worry," Hazel said when they both gave her a concerned look. She pointed at Leo through the front window and murmured something as he tried to hail a cab. "He'll get what's coming to him."

"You told me Blue Stones have a 'do no harm,' clause," Lauren said.

Hazel grinned. "The second half is 'take no shit.' It's an inconvenience spell. No cab's gonna stop for him, and the bus will only pick him up if he's waiting at the stop. But it will be running late just for him. And his ticket app won't work."

Lauren laughed. "For Christmas, give me one free use of that."

"I wouldn't dare. Auntie Lena would rip me a new one for unethical behavior if she ever found out."

"Fair enough," Lauren replied.

"I have a question," Jeff asked, gaze focused on Hazel's stone. "What's a Blue Stone, anyway?"

Lauren squawked in disbelief and started a rambling, loving explanation as only a fangirl could. Hazel saw herself out a few minutes later, not even bothering to say goodbye. Her wave was barely noticed, and she grinned at the sight of the two of them curled in towards each other at the table as she took her leave.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Look, sometimes I can be subtle and let the feminism speak for itself, but holy shit I have known a lot of Leos, and getting to take one out felt fucking good.
> 
> 2\. Blue Stones can totally use their skills to fuck with people, but it's frowned upon if the person getting messed with doesn't deserve it (Leo deserves it).
> 
> 3\. No one does guileless like Auntie Tessa. Between that and her dislike of swearing, she actually gets away with a LOT.
> 
> 4\. Yes, I know what all those new named magical creatures do. For reasons that will be explained later, the book gremlins are my favorite.
> 
> 5\. No, I did not know what they all did when I put them in the story.


End file.
